Gemini Links 29/06/2024: Content Drowning in 'Goo' and LLM Slop
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Gemini* and Gopher
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Personal/Opinions
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You can't trust reviews
I already didn't trust them, but I just got 2 drinks to post one in google maps (just stars without comment).
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A Rare Book
I was in a thrift shop this morning, looking at books, when I came across a volume that looked interesting.
Tree of Codes, by Jonathan Safran Foer
I picked it up, of course, and read the back cover--which revealed absolutely nothing. I flipped through it and noticed it was not a normal book... this book was a die-cut wonder, with words peeking through seemingly randomly cut panels to reveal a sort of story (or part of one).
My first thought was, "Ah, this is a pretentious piece of so-called art." Then I thought perhaps it would be fascinating to attempt to read... maybe it had something hidden that I would enjoy.
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Re: APRStoot (logout)
If you're interested in ham radio, you maybe saw logout's post about APRS[1]. In it, he mentioned a program he wrote called "aprstoot", which receives APRS messages at OK1ZXS-15, and posts them to a mastodon account. Quite fascinating!
APRS is a 2m / VHF thing, which means that range is limited. However, APRS is also a gateway and internet thing, which means that range is UNLIMITED. To test out the theory, I setup my APRS station this week in an attempt to reach OK1ZXS-15.
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🔤SpellBinding: YKOSTUC Wordo: ETUDE
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Technology and Free Software
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A quick description of how to use Text Mapper and Hex Describe
Text Mapper and Hex Describe are very useful. Start with Text Mapper. Choose either the second section (starts with "Random generates map data based on Erin D. Smale's Hex-Based Campaign Design") or the third section (starts with "Alpine generates map data based on Alex Schroeder's algorithm that's trying to recreate a medieval Swiss landscape"). Click on the "Generate Map Data" button of the chosen section. That will result in a new page displaying, and although it is hard to tell, the text description of the map in the text entry box in the first section (starts with "Submit your text description of the map.") has been replaced with a new random map. Click into the text entry box and select all the text (Ctrl-A or Command-A, depending on your operating system) and copy it. Save it in a text file somewhere. This is your map's text definnition. Click the button "Generate Map" in Text Mapper's first section. This displays a new page with a nice SVG map of your random hexes. Save the .svg file with your map's text definition.
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Port Problems
For years I've run gopher, SSH, and VNC through my home internet IP and personal router. A few days ago, all my port forwarding stopped working.
I tried resetting everything, double-checking configs (which have not changed); I even dropped in another router that I have, just in case. Nothing has worked to restore the port forwarding magic, to any of my internal systems that used it.
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Content drowning in 'Goo'
I tried mimicking a couple simple html files in a Google "site".
(Why? To see if just giving in and giving Google hosting business maybe wasn't so bad after all to avoid the fly-by-night-iness of smaller hosting providers.)
Results (via "curl")? The Google site equivalent of my index.html file was over 32 times larger than the index.html file itself. The page the index.html linked to was over 16 times larger as a Google site equivalent.
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Internet/Gemini
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hi, can The Midnight be my mastodon? ok, thanx
I walk in, look around, try to think of poetic, thoughtful things to write and say - I just stand there, awkwardly half-prompted. Like I went to type some hype, when someone put their fingers together and froze the scenario. Small Wonders-style.
I deleted most junk from the Write.as blog, ten or so entries in, and the first post remains, "here today gone tomorrow' or some shit like that. It's officially the "about" or "expectancy" of that site - I write stuff, delete it a few days later - be there or not, just words written then ditched.
RSS is full of Mastodon feeds these days, isn't worth subbing to blogs much, tbh, because no one updates them. I mean, almost ever. Back to the pre-COVID levels of blog (in)frequency. People have TikTok and PC-generated fever dream photos via AI these days, who who ever needs to write anything?
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* Gemini (Primer) links can be opened using Gemini software. It's like the World Wide Web but a lot lighter.